The Arizona Cardinals paid a hefty price to keep offensive tackle D.J. Humphries in the red, white and black for three more years. The price they paid to lock up Humphries should be seen as a warning sign to the Lions against dumping right tackle Rick Wagner.
Arizona will pay Humphries $15 million a year through 2022 to remain as their left tackle. That’s a staggering sum that dwarfs Wagner’s $9 million per year salary, which extends out through 2021.
Humphries is an inferior player to Wagner even with the Lions right tackle coming off his worst season. Wagner’s durability, pass protection and consistency of performance over the past four years is far better than Humphries, who also committed 12 penalties to Wagner’s three in 2019.
The larger point is the replacement cost if the Lions were to part ways with Wagner with two years left on his contract. Humphries getting $15 million a year on average with $29 million guaranteed sets the bar significantly higher than what Wagner earns over the next two years.
One of the reasons Humphries was able to command such a contract was the relative scarcity of quality tackles on the market. There isn’t one better than Wagner for the same amount of money in 2020, period. Paying more money to tread water — at best, most likely — is not the secret to turning around the losing fates of 2019 in Detroit.